City of Secrets
by Amazing TEEN Authoress
Summary: Reanne Fraser is a normal teenager living in small-town Alberta. She travels to New York for her brother's band's first-ever performance, and then nearly gets killed. A string of events unfold that she never could have imagined possible, including the reason behind her mom's strange disappearance.


**Hi there, everyone, it's me again! I'm back with a new story, this time for one of my favourite book series: The Mortal Instruments. In case you missed the summary, here it is again: **

**Reanne Fraser is a normal teenager who lives in smalltown Alberta. She has a normal life, well, except for the fact that she only has one friend. She's invited out to New York City for her brother's band's first-ever performance, only something very strange happens. And then a very surprising string of events unfolds. And when Alec gets lonely after his breakup with Magnus, he seeks out Reanne for comfort and advice. Well, maybe more than that.**

**So yeah, that's basically what my story is about. It follows the movie and book timelines, depending on which one I have access too. Personally, I liked the book better. The movie is too fast-paced for me. I guess there's a reason why I enjoy fat books better than their fast movies. **

**My long author's note is probably depriving you of your enjoyment of my story, so I will say goodbye now and enjoy! **

**Mahalo!**

If you lived in a prairie town in Alberta, you weren't in for much of an exciting life. Maybe the big cities got excitement: Edmonton held the world's second-largest mall. Calgary got the Calgary Stampede and the much-hated Calgary Flames hockey team.

But when you lived in Vermilion, you were lucky to get a movie theater. You were thankful when you got one. Vermilion had a movie theater, and a bowling alley. That was pretty much it.

The bowling alley was the local teen hangout. Reanne Fraser stood in line with her best friend, Chad Gibson, waiting to get into the alley. The line got so long on weekends that they had had to add in a bouncer to warn away the wannabes and liars.

"You've got to be kidding me." The bouncer leered through his glasses. The teenagers in line behind them leaned forward interestedly, hoping for some excitement. "You can't bring that thing in here. This is a bowling alley, not some goddamn frat club."

Well, there went the PG-13 rating, Reanne thought.

"I don't think it is," a boy said. He was tall, maybe five foot six, and he carried a long dagger. His hair was blood red, and his eyes were an astonishingly bright blue. Contacts, maybe? "It's a part of my costume. It is costume night, right?"

The bowling held a costume night every Friday for those who wanted to dress up in the nuttiest outfits they could pull off. So far, this boy's was the very nuttiest. Most of the teens in line were trying to pass off as devils, angels, or animals like dogs and cats. One boy was even dressed like a fox.

"I suppose it is," the bouncer grunted. "Go in."

The boy smiled at him with a smile that made Reanne shiver. Something wasn't right here, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"And what are you supposed to be?" the bouncer demanded when Reanne and Chad reached the front of the line.

"Humans," Chad joked. "We haven't got costumes."

"In you go," the bouncer said, jerking his head at the door.

Reanne smiled at Chad. She knew he hated coming to Lightray- that was the bowling alley's name. He only came because she wanted him to.

"This place rocks," Chad announced.

Some kids had started a dance party in a corner. A couple were on teams, in the middle of a game.

Reanne led Chad up to the counter. "Can we get a size seven and a size five shoes?" she requested. Chad was grinning. "Hey, it's not my fault your feet are monstrous."

"You were totally checking out that red-haired freak, weren't you?" he teased.

Reanne elbowed him. "Of course not! Why, are you jealous? Are you secretly gay and nursing a crush on him?" Chad's smile faded. "Oops. Sorry. That was out of line." Gayness was a personal issue in Chad's life. His own sister was a lesbian.

"Nah, it's okay, I'm just playing with you," said Chad. "So, are we going?"

"I'm waiting for you," Reanne said.

They put their shoes on and went over to their lanes. It was one-on-one bowling, so they each had their own lane.

"I'm going to kick your ass," Chad declared.

"Yeah, right, I think you know who'll do the ass-kicking," Reanne retorted. "Let's bowl."

They took turns going. Afterwards, they ordered pizza and claimed a table above their lanes.

"It's getting late," Chad commented as he polished off his third slice of pizza.

"You're getting fat," she teased him.

"We should probably go before all the cabs run out," Reanne said thoughtfully. "Besides, my mom will freak if I come home after midnight. She gets all pissed off when I do."

"Sure," Chad said. "Let's go."

Chad and Reanne headed outside and hailed a cab. Reanne was dropped off at her house. She waved as the cab drove away with Chad inside.

Reanne lived with her mother. Her mom had left her dad when she was little because he was abusive. Her mother's name was Janet Fraser. She had one brother, Brian, who had a daughter Reanne's age named Kayla. They visited often.

Reanne was short, a couple inches below Chad's five foot five. She was five foot two. She had shoulder-length, brownish-red hair and cat-like green eyes.

"I'm home!" she called.

"Reanne, thank God," she sighed. "Your brother called."

Reanne perked up. "Matt? Really? Do you think it'd be too late to call him back?"

"He said he'd be out until one o'clock at band practice," said Janet. Matt was a part of a band that could never decide on a name. Right now, Matt said they were called Sea Vegetable Conspiracy. Reanne grimaced at the name.

Reanne called her brother. "Hey, Ri, what's up?" asked Matt.

"Mom said you called," she explained.

"Oh, yeah, I told her to tell you," Matt said. "Hey, can you do me a huge favor?"

"Depends on what it is," Reanne said. She had to be very careful when doing favors for Matt. The last favor she'd done for him had resulted in her participating in the cinnamon challenge for a YouTube video and she'd nearly choked to death on cinnamon.

"Well, Eric finally got our band a gig, and it's our first ever," Matt began, "And we want a crowd. Could you come out and show your support to your big brother?"

"When's this performance?" Reanne asked.

"On Sunday afternoon," said Matt. "Please will you come?"

"Okay, fine," Reanne sighed, "But you better not choke me to death this time."

She could tell Matt was grinning. "Don't worry, I won't." He promptly hung up after that.

"Mom!" Reanne called. "Matt's band is having a performance and he wants me to be there. May I go?"

"I suppose so," Janet murmured. "Just… be safe, okay?"

Reanne clapped her hands. She raced to her computer and booked a flight for the next day.

New York. That was an exciting prospect. Well, it was certainly going to be interesting.

* * *

**Wondering what happened to the red-haired kid? Use your imaginations! Come up with something interesting and PM it to me, maybe I'll feature it as a bonus chapter!**


End file.
